This invention relates to ear-piercing devices and, more particularly, to an ear-piercing cartridge and stud gun system with a stackable packing box for the cartridge.
Ear piercing, an increasingly commonplace fashion statement, is rapidly becoming a routine procedures, often performed by laypersons without medical experience or training. Today a number of manually operated devices that allow for the safe, hygienic, user-friendly piercing of ears are available. Examples of such systems are disclosed in U.S. Pat. No. 5,496,343 issued to Reil on Mar. 5, 1996, application Ser. No. 292,249 filed Aug. 18, 1994, U.S. Pat. No. 5,792,170 issued to Reil on Aug. 11, 1998, application Ser. No. 754,411 filed Nov. 21, 1996, and U.S. Pat. No. 5,868,774 (xe2x80x9cthe ""774 Patentxe2x80x9d) issued to Reil on Feb. 9, 1999, application Ser. No. 8,763 filed Jan. 19, 1998, all of which are incorporated herein by this reference.
The various ear-piercing systems that exist today essentially comprise a stud (also called an earring or a piercing earring) with a post (also called a pin or a piercing pin) and a nut (sometimes called a clasp or an earring clasp) that are mounted in an earring cartridge. During the ear piercing process, the ear is placed between the post and the nut and the cartridge is squeezed, either manually or by placing it in a stud gun, which causes the post to pierce the ear and engage the nut.
From a fashion standpoint, one of the most desirable earring designs is in the form of a hoop but, heretofore, hoop earrings have not been commonly used with ear-piercing systems. By and large, the studs in use today have designs that are symmetrical about the post. A primitive hoop earring ear-piercing system is disclosed in U.S. Pat. No. 5,004,471 (xe2x80x9cthe ""471 Patentxe2x80x9d) but the disclosed design is not a fully closeable hoop thereby creating an unsightly design. The stud post (or piercing pin) is engaged by the nut (or clasp), leaving the hoop open. This is because the stud post is rigidly attached to the hoop of the stud, which implies that the hoop cannot be rotated to engage the piercing pin. Further, the open end of the hoop is not adapted to engage the piercing pin (or stud). Apart from its untoward appearance, the design disclosed in the ""471 Patent also poses a danger of scratching and injury to the wearer because of the open end of the hoop. Therefore, there exists a need today for a hoop earring that is fully closeable.
Additionally, the existing designs for earring nuts (or clasps) are such that the open end of the stud post sticks out of the nut after the stud post is engaged by the nut. This presents a potential for injury to the wearer of the earring because the open end of the stud post can scratch the wearer""s neck behind the ear. Therefore, there is a need for an improved earring nut that will remove this potential for injury.
Further, the existing ear-piercing cartridges suffer from a number of drawbacks. To illustrate these drawbacks, consider the ""774 Patent, which represents the state-of-the-art in ear-piercing design. The ""774 Patent describes an ear-piercing apparatus that is comprised of an earring cartridge which holds an earring stud and an earring nut in two opposed jaws, i.e., an earring jaw and a nut jaw. The stud is held within a stud post holder assembly (also called xe2x80x9cpierced-ear earring cartridgexe2x80x9d in the Reil ""774 Patent), which is a module that disassembles into two pieces. One of these pieces has a frangible and breakable tab at its rear.
Although, the ""774 Patent describes a simple, easy to use ear-piercing system, when it is used to pierce an ear, the two pieces of the stud post holder assembly may stay attached to the stud and, therefore, sometimes require manual removal from the earring. Even when the two pieces come off the stud, they fall out of the assembly, sometimes into the ear or onto the body of the subject whose ears are being pierced and at other times onto the floor.
Moreover, the reliance of the ""774 Patent on the frangible tab has design limitations. First, the breaking of the tab causes an unwanted noise that is often a source of distress or concern for the customer. Second, the use of the frangible tab leads to only discrete control over the ear-piercing process. In the invention of the ""774 Patent, when the earring assembly is squeezed, either holding it in a hand or mounted in an ear-piercing gun, the presence of the frangible tab implies that once the earring assembly is squeezed to the point of breaking the tab, the ear is pierced automatically. Thus, it prevents continuous control of the exact location and timing of the ear-piercing process. Because of the lack of continuous control over the location and timing of the ear-piercing process, the technician who is piercing the ear has to use guesswork to line the stud post with the desired piercing area. This causes him to sometimes miss the exact spot that he wanted to pierce.
Additionally, the ear-piercing system of the ""774 Patent and its predecessors have not been designed for use with the novel hinged hoop earrings described above.
Finally, the ""774 Patent discloses a sterilizable blister pack for storing and transporting the earring cartridge. While such a packing is a convenient, effective sterilizable packing for the cartridge, it does not provide rigid, vertical stackable storage for earring cartridges.
The present invention solves the preceding problems, representing a quantum improvement in the design and operation of ear-piercing systems. It provides an improved hoop ear-piercing earring design that is fully closeable and that is hinged to allow for free rotation of the hoop. Further, the invention provides an ingenious earring cartridge system that can be adapted for use with hinged hoop earrings of the present invention as well as with traditional symmetrical ear-piercing earrings and that provides for complete and instantaneous release of the cartridge assembly from the stud and nut once the ear is pierced. Additionally, the earring cartridge of the invention allows the technician to exercise continuous control over the ear-piercing process, thereby allowing him to align the stud post and the location to be pierced right up to the point of piercing. This leads to greatly increased accuracy of the ear-piercing process as compared to the prior art. The invention also provides an improved earring nut for use with the traditional ear-piercing earring, which includes a flat shield for isolating the open end of the stud post from the body of the earring wearer. The improved nut design also ensures correct spacing between the head of the stud and the nut, preventing the nut from traveling too far down the stud post and squeezing the pierced area, which can inhibit healing.
In a general embodiment, the present invention is an earring cartridge and stud gun system for providing sterile ear piercing comprising an earring cartridge carrying a stud having a post in a stud post holder assembly and a nut in slidably aligned, spaced apart, and oppositely opposed placement so that an ear part may be placed between the post and the nut for piercing wherein a torque-like force is produced on the stud post holder assembly causing the assembly to rotatably open after the earring cartridge is compressed to bring the stud towards the nut for engaging the post with the nut. The rotatable opening of the stud post holder assembly facilitates the disengagement of the assembly from the earring stud after the stud has connected to the nut, eliminating the need to touch the ears of the customer to confirm the stud-nut connection or to remove the assembly after the ear piercing is completed.
In a preferred embodiment, the earring cartridge comprises a nut jaw for holding the nut and an earring jaw for holding the stud post holder assembly, which carries the stud. The assembly is in two halves with each half having a front stud head adaptor, a main body and an L-shaped terminal member having a base and a leg. The terminal members ride in intermediate channels in the earring jaw and when the earring cartridge is squeezed the main body of the post holder assembly moves relative to the flexible tang, engaging it, and the bases of the terminal members slide over a hump juxtaposed with the tang.
The invention also provides for convenient hygienic transport and storage of the cartridge in the form of a stackable packing box which contains a robust seal to maintain the cartridge in a sterile environment.
If the invention is used with a stud gun, the earring cartridge is used by placement while loading within the cradle of the gun, the cradle receiving and removing the earring cartridge from the stackable packing box to provide and maintain the stud and the nut assembly in an aligned position for piercing the ear without any necessity of coming in direct contact with the sterile earring cartridge with the hands of the operator. After the ear is pierced, the stackable packing box can be used to unload the cartridge from the stud gun. Thus, the packing box allows the operator to load and unload the cartridge from the stud gun without touching the cartridge.
It is an object of the invention to provide a freely rotatable hinged hoop earring ear-piercing system that is closeable.
It is a further object of the present invention to provide a more effective means by which ears may be pierced. In particular, the present invention seeks to provide an ear-piercing system in which the stud holding module separates from the stud cleanly after the ear is pierced. Further, the present invention provides a system whereby the components of the stud holder module remain within the earring cartridge after an ear is pierced. This eliminates the possibility of the module components falling into the ear or body of the subject being pierced or onto the floor, forcing the ear piercer to look for them following the ear piercing operation.
It is another object of the present invention to provide a higher level of accuracy for ear-piercing by means that are more controllable and more expertly handled by persons without the requirement of a high degree of training. In particular, the present invention seeks to provide an ear-piercing system that can be finely controlled by the ear-piercer whereby the ear-piercer need not commit to piercing an ear until he is certain of piercing the precise spot that he wants to.
Additionally, the invention seeks to provide a safe earring nut for use with traditional style ear-piercing earrings that protects the wearer from being scratched by the open end of the stud post.
It is yet another object of the present invention to provide an ear-piercing methodology that creates, protects and maintains sterile ear-piercing instruments prior to the actual piercing. It is an additional object of the present invention to provide sterilizable and sterile means by which the disposable, one-use, ear-piercing cartridges may be transported and stored in a sterile condition until ready for use. It is yet another object of the present invention to provide a sterilizable and sterile stackable packing boxes that facilitates engagement and disengagement by an earring cartridge with a stud gun and which earring cartridge is resistant to reuse to ensure that the same is not reused.
It is an additional object of the present invention to provide a hand-held stud gun that can engage the earring cartridge of the invention to better control the cartridge during the ear-piercing process.